The Gaudí Awards arrive at the 16th edition with Creature, Saben aquell, 20,000 especies de abejas and Un amor com les films with more options to take home different statuettes, in a gala that returns to the International Convention Center of Barcelona (CCIB), after the last two years in the oval room of the MNAC. The ceremony will have an Oscar flavor, as it will be attended by, among others, J.A. Bayona, Pablo Berger, Montse Ribé and David Martí, nominated for the upcoming Hollywood Academy Awards. Bayona as an international film for La sociedad de la nieve, Ribé and Martí – who already won one for El laberinto del fauno in 2006 – for the make-up and hairdressing of the successful film about the 1972 Andes air tragedy, and Berger in the category of best animated film for Robot dreams.
Of course, in the awards given by the Catalan Cinema Academy, Bayona will only be eligible for the category of best European film, since La sociedad de la nieve does not have a Catalan production. Ribé and Martí participate with their work in the visual effects of Secaderos, and Berger, who won in 2012 with the silent Snow White, has many options to get the Gaudí for his acclaimed debut in animation with the tender story of friendship between a robot and a dog in the New York of the eighties, winner in this category at the European film awards.
With 1,400 guests, seated at 130 round tables, the CCIB will be transformed for the occasion into “the temple of the Catalan film industry”, with a meaningful tribute to the spectators, who are invited to “raise their heads from the screen of mobile to enjoy the magic of cinema in community”, the motto of this year’s promotional campaign. The viewer will be the protagonist of a vindictive party filled with feminist humor that will be put on by the hosts of the evening, Maria Rovira and Ana Polo, creators of the Oye Polo podcast. The production of the show, equipped with a stage of modern and simple shapes and presided over by a large screen representing the cinema, is in charge of Focus and will be directed by Oriol Faura.
The president of the Catalan Film Academy, Judith Colell, bets on a ceremony that will be “very marching, elegant and fun”, and insists that 2023 has been a “year of pride” with a “spectacular harvest” at the cinematographic for the quality of the films produced and for cinema in Catalan, with a significant increase in the number of films and budgets, as well as in terms of presence and recognition at the most prestigious festivals in the world. “There are films that have connected a lot with the spectators and we have had a good box office”, he says.
Creatura, the second feature film directed by an Elena Martín that exposes the traumas of female sexuality, and Saben aquell, a biopic of the comedian Eugenio directed by David Trueba, with 15 and 13 nominations, stand out as favorite titles, followed by the nine of 20,000 species of bees, by Estíbaliz Urresola, the eight of Un amor, by Isabel Coixet, and the six of The master who promised the sea, by Patricia Font, and La contadora de películas, by Lone Sherfig. In the best director section, Elena Martín, Trueba and Coixet are competing for a distinction that also includes the last work behind the camera by Agustí Villaronga (Loli Tormenta), who died a year ago, just on the day that the XV Gaudí edition.
Finalists, award winners, artists and authorities will parade along the red carpet, 120 meters long. Among the latter is confirmed the presence of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun; the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès; the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra; the mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, and the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga.
Music will also be very present throughout the evening. Julieta will reinterpret the classic Al vent de Raimon; Guillem Gisbert will sing in the premiere A man made a tribute to the figure of the screenwriter; the drag queen artist Sharonne will be at the head of In memoriam, and the protagonists of the Jo mai mai series will perform a new version of Petar-ho by Oques Grasses, a hymn to the celebration of uniqueness and diversity.
The Gaudí Award of Honor-Miquel Porter will go to film and television director and screenwriter Rosa Vergés, recognized for works such as Boom Boom, Souvenir, Tic Tac or Iris.
This year the Academy points out that there is a record number of nominations in the history of Gaudí of seventy Catalan production titles, to which we must add a dozen European films, with a total of 33 finalist titles (28 Catalan productions and 5 ‘Europeans). And the presence of the majority of women finalists, as in the last two editions, stands out as well, with 57% compared to 43% of men.
